Thursday, February 23, 2012

This painting was done on gray pastel paper. I would like to try some different papers once I use up what I've got. I find that I am layering and layering to get the color spots. I needed to use fixative about 4 times on this one and worked hard to get the pastel into the paper.

I worked from a photo I recently took at the marina in Sarasota. Just trying to gain some experience with this medium.

Friday, February 17, 2012

This is Florence's demo in our pastel class. One student brought the gourds. Florence showed us how to take pictures for future reference. She says to leave a nice space around the photo and crop it when you get it on the computer. She also suggested putting a grid drawn on a piece of clear vellum right on the screen when painting from a photo on the computer.

She also said you could cut out individual gourd pics and place them in different positions until you get the composition you want.

She told us she prints her photos 8x10 or 5x7 when she works from her photos. She said usually 5x7 when she is cutting and rearranging to get the composition she wants. In another class she showed us how she took pics of Siesta Key beach and then put them together. She would cut around a boat on the sand and set it in the picture. She says to take lots of pictures for reference and to use in compositions. There's so much to learn and she's been a wonderful teacher!

Saturday, February 11, 2012

I'm loving these pastels. I did this in class with Florence. I found that there's more to painting with pastels than just laying down color and watching values. Some of the decisions I had to make were: how much pressure to apply, ﻿do I use a softer or harder pastel, keep the pastel clean, use the side, when do I apply fixative. This was a wonderful subject and I want to paint more cherries!!!

My online gallery

My Etsy Shop

Follow by Email

Followers

About Me

My name is Sue Williams and I am a self-taught oil and pastel artist. After my retirement as an elementary educator, I now have the time to devote to painting. I love using oil, soft pastel and copic markers, brush and palette knife. I am experimenting with subjects, paint mostly from photographs at this time, sketch figures, and strive to paint loosely. It's my goal to paint and sketch every day and continue my growth as an artist. Thanks for viewing my work.